


it's too late for me (but not for you)

by goodboysweaterTM



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AAAANGST, Angst, Canon Universe, Dark!Rey, Did I say angst?, F/M, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Reylo - Freeform, Self-Sacrifice, ben solo would do anything for rey, get ready to have your heart broken, not a happy ending...but kind of?, they've both got a dark side, why do I like to suffer?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-02-01 02:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21343372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodboysweaterTM/pseuds/goodboysweaterTM
Summary: This is not what he imagined. He sees her for what she really is. His worst nightmare realized.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	it's too late for me (but not for you)

**Author's Note:**

> All aboard the pain train! I was inspired by the snippet of dark side rey from the teaser and the angst spiraled out of my control...oops. Hope you like to suffer as much as I apparently do.

At first he doesn’t think she’s real. Frame shrouded in black and face illuminated red. Standing across from him as they meet in dreams. She looks just like he imagined she would, finally by his side in the suffocating darkness. But her face is sunken in, skin stretched too tight over bone. This is _not _ what he imagined. He sees her for what she really is. His worst nightmare realized. 

Their minds connect, a familiar spark. This time she does not fight it, she is open and pulling him in. Her thoughts, the energy within her, overtaking him. And all he sees is darkness. Pain and blackness and anger. His words are thrown back at him.

_ “I can show you the ways of the force!” _

_ “We can bring a new order to the galaxy!” _

_ “You’ll be the one to turn.” _

He did not mean this. 

The light in her eyes is gone, replaced with endless, biting cold. Nausea rolls through him. The realization strikes hard, that this is not what he wanted for her. The swirling, choking blackness of the force was never a place for her incadence. It was always her unfaltering blaze that drew him to her.

“Rey...” he gasps when the words finally return to him. He takes a staggering step forward, his hand already reaching for her when the grating laughter begins to echo through the dim cavern. It is only in this moment that he realizes they are not alone. A shadowy figure looms in the obscurity.

_ Kill him, _ the haggard voice calls. A wisp of hesitation flashes across her eyes, so quickly he would have missed it had he blinked. But it is enough. Once again he knows what he must do, and for her he would do anything. 

So when she moves to strike him, a body of boiling power and turmoil, he does nothing. He closes his eyes and lets her blade embed itself in his chest. In this moment of startling clarity, he understands his father’s sacrifice. 

His eyes snap open with the pain and his lightsaber hilt clatters to the floor beside him, never having been ignited. After a moment, her blade disengages and joins his on the polished black stone beneath them. 

Her eyes are different now, shock and surprise morph into sadness and shame. Inexplicably, the light flickers back in too. All he feels is relief. 

“It’s too late for me,” he wheezes as his knees collapse out from under him. “But not for you.”

She follows him down to the floor, a frantic mess of limbs and fabric. She is gripping his shoulders and shaking him, unrelenting and extremely tender at once.

“Why did you do that?” she practically howls. Her eyes shine with unshed tears.

He had accepted his fate the moment he saw her raise her blade.

If he was being truly honest with himself, he had accepted his fate the moment he first laid eyes on her in the forest of Takodana. For how else could their tangled paths have ended if not with her triumph over him. To die by her blade was a better death than he deserved.

“For you,” he wheezes as a smile tugs the corners of his lips. “It was all for you.”

The cackling reverberates across the stone once more, this time louder and crackling with energy.

“You _ fool _,” the figure hisses. 

Neither is sure who the shadow speaks to but it doesn’t matter. The pain in his abdomen intensifies sharply and he collapses further until his side meets the uneven surface of the floor.

“NO!” she screams. Suddenly she is scrambling for her lightsaber and sprinting to the crude throne constructed in the shadowy recesses of the room. He watches with blurry eyes as two red blades cross and strike. Black spots begin to form around them. All he can do is grunt when she is thrown back against the sloping wall of the cave. His stomach drops and the panic begins to set in. But only a moment later she is bringing down the ceiling of jagged, sharp rock onto the hooded creature. A song of rumbling and screams rings out and echoes. 

He knows its over when the thrumming darkness that seemed to fill every molecule of the space rushes out of the room. Brilliant beams of sunlight stream in from the new gaping hole in the ceiling, illuminating every single crevice and crack. With barely seeing eyes he watches her rush over the mountains of rubble toward him. 

She stands above him, a halo of sunshine around her head, as he takes his last breath. He thinks he might understand what they meant by balance. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate your support as I'm pretty new to this whole "posting your fanfic" thing.


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